It was always true, if you need high speed link for distances of meters and more, optical is the way. The difference now is that fast links are now demanded by end users. This will be a huge market . $ 300 is way too expensive, but here is our prediction: Prices will drop dramatically in a couple of years and optical communication in consumer electronics is here to stay.

The promise of the Thunderbolt standard is that it can deliver a lot of data over long distances very quickly for many types of devices. Unfortunately, that promise has been pretty slow to materialize, and the long distance piece of the equation has been particularly painful.

Corning is hoping to turn that around this year with the consumer launch of its Thunderbolt Optical Cables in 10 meter (33 foot), 30 meter (99 foot), and 60 meter (198 foot) sizes.